Impact
by Ivycat
Summary: On a routine mission Dr. Bashir and Dax are in a shuttle accident after colliding with a asteroid that is not a asteroid. Beamed off the shuttle and separated, Jadzia fights for her life while the fate of her companion is unknown. Set after second season. Will contain descriptions of medical emergencies.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer - All rights to Star Trek DS9 belongs to Paramount.**

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**Impact **by Ivycat

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Words. They had always been his friends, the blue suited figure in the runabout mused. A hedge with which he could surround himself,a comforting torrent when he was nervous. Now, they proved to be as fickle as a Dabo girls affection. They jilted him when he most needed them, when his heart was the fullest.

It was a perverse fate that had put him in such close proximity to Jadzia, when he had only just determined to cease being the love sick boy.

He was smart, Damn it, smarter than anyone on the station, but around her, one would never have guessed.

'Amusing.' That was what he had overheard himself described as.

_Amusing._ The description rankled. He was almost sure that he had overheard 'arrogant' as well.

He worked the controls effortlessly, almost flawlessly. His face a mask at the moment, betraying none of the turmoil inside. He sat in silence for hours, not looking at the fellow figure in blue beside him in the cramped confines of the runabout. But soon the restless silence surrounding him was snapped like a brittle twig. There was a shrill beeping from the console. He leaned forward, his eyes scanning the readout.

"Asteroid directly ahead!"

"Raise shields." Dax replied, her fingers dancing over panel in front of her.

"Shields up."

Bashir leaned forward slightly, some instinct prompting him to look out window in front of him. His eyes widened and his breath hitched.

"Dax! Brace…" He never got a chance to finish the alert.

There was a head filling cacophony as the exterior of the shuttle made contact with a chunk of icy rock .

The occupants were thrown around the shuttle mercilessly as the shield was assaulted. Steam began to vent into the shuttle from a ruptured hose filling it, obscuring the prone figures, through the haze a lone light began to blink. The proximity alert flashed once, twice, dimmed and gave a last halfhearted glimmer, then went dark.

The shuttle floated in an aimless manner, rotating slowly in the emptiness.

* * *

It was thick, too thick. She rubbed her eyes trying to clear them, coughing as she inhaled acrid fumes. She blinked trying to escape the thick oppressing blackness. Nothing helped. Still coughing she pulled her shirt up over her mouth, then she tried to stand up, she swayed on unsteady feet and winced as she made contact with the runabout seat. With her head. The shuttle was inverted.

She let out a breathe and tried to orient herself. "I am Jadzia Dax." That was a good place to start. "My arms work…" She flexed them slowly. She already knew her legs worked, no matter how unsteadily. She stumbled toward the upside down panel trying to activate lights, sensors, something. The Trill's calm manner was in evidence as she methodically attempted to restore some type of system function, but all of her efforts were in vain and the shuttle was still dark.

Her next move was to find her silent companion. It was not a long task as it was a small shuttle, indeed no sooner than she had formed the resolution to find him her foot landed on one of his limbs with her full weight . Muttering an apology she knelt down beside him, her slender hands searching and probing to find injury. There was no evidence of injury, the still figure was warm and breathing. Sitting back Jadzia assessed the situation, all emergency supplies we located under the floor of the runabout, now well above her head. Unconscious doctor beside her… Suddenly she bent over Julian again, her hands fumbling with the ever present tricorder that was on his belt. Flipping it open she let out a small coughing breath of relief, the small patch of light seemed as welcoming as the sun on the Trill home world. Julian's breathing was soft and regular and life signs steady. It seemed as if the young doctor had only sustained a blow to the head that had temporarily rendered him unconscious. She stood up, once more attempting to reach the medkit and emergency supplies but they were out of reach, she could not obtain them unaided. With a sigh she slowly made her way to the doctor, one more scan showed he was still stable. She reluctantly turned off the device to save power. Now surrounded by the darkness she pulled at her collar uncomfortably, for all the effortless ease with which she wore the uniform Jadzia had always despised tight collars. She shifted uncomfortably, her hand pressing over the symbiont . Then a groan sounded from the blackness.

"Kukkalaka."

Jadzia smiled faintly at the memory the word brought up.

"Julian?"

She felt forward in the darkness attempting to reach for his hand, but a shrill yelp and her fingers told her she had made contact with his nose instead.

"Oh, sorry about that."

Even in the darkness the smile was evident in her voice.

"Jadzia… uh, what happened to the lights?"

"I don't know right now, we hit something, lost attitude control, we are drifting inverted at the moment. The artificial gravity seems to have malfunctioned and reversed and is producing graviton particles with a polarity shift. I can't reach the control panel. Life support seems to be functioning at the moment. Plasma leak on starboard side."

There was a moment of silence and a rustling as he sat himself up.

"I lost my tricorder." There was an edge to his voice.

"No, here, I borrowed it to see it you were hurt. And also to see if I could use the light to help me reach the control panel."

Jadzia grasped the hard case and pushed it forward in the darkness. His warm hand closed over hers for an instant as he took it. The blackness abated somewhat as he opened it. Jadzia involuntarily leaned in toward the light. In the dim light she could see a dark line along the side of his face. Seeing her gaze he reached his hand up and gingerly touched his scalp.

"Hmm," he said dispassionately, "I seem to have a minor scalp laceration."

Then seconds later he was directing the scanner to his crewmate.

"Any pain or tenderness?" She furrowed her brow and gave him an impatient look.

"I was just rolled around in a shuttle following an impact. I could give you a shorter list of what does NOT hurt."

"Ah, yes, that's a good point."

"Julian?"

"Yes?"

"You need to save the battery on your tricorder."

"Good idea." He snapped it shut quickly, and then scooted over to the side of the shuttle Jadzia was leaning on.

"Well, what do we do now?"

"I was hoping you would have some brilliant plan. So far I have nothing, we have to be able to reach the control panel, see why so many systems are down, make sure we have enough life support, send a distress signal, access our emergency packs, restore lighting…" Her voice trailed off.

"And how do you suggest we proceed?" His voice was strong, professional.

"Well, at the moment I would say take a few minutes to asses then formulate a plan."

"All right, that's a plan."

She could feel him sitting close even though she could not see. The Trill found it comforting, a moment later and she reached out her hand to search for his.

"What?"

His voice was startled, she had grabbed his elbow.

"Sorry, I was reaching for your hand."

"Not a problem." He assured her, and in an instant his warm hand had clasped her cool one.

"Well, it is a good thing I have never been scared of the dark." He quipped.

There was a long silence.

"Jadzia?"

"Hmm."

"Are you about to tell me you are afraid of the dark?"

"No, "She lied easily with a laugh. "I am a trill Julian, remember? The symbiont lives in dark caves underground remember." She repressed a small shudder.

"Ah, yes. I had forgotten."

"Well, Jadzia, shall we get to it?"

"What?"

"You yourself said we had to reach the control panel. That endeavor will require the two of us, I propose you stand on my back and reach the comm. "

"Alright," she agreed after a pause. There was a firm tug to her hand as he rose, pulling her with him. He took a few steps forward.

"Julian? Where are you going? The front of the shuttle is this way."

"Um, yes, sorry. The darkness has me slightly disoriented."

"Alright, can you climb on my back, Jadzia?"

"Climb from what?" Jadzia replied in a maddeningly reasonable tone. "We are standing on the roof."

"I see your point, well, what if you get on my shoulders then I attempt to stand up?"

"That should work."

She maneuvered to get close to him when,

"OW, Jadzia! You are standing on my hand!"

"Oh, sorry."

She straightened up quickly catching him under the chin with the crown of her head causing his teeth to clack sharply.

"JAD.. ZI.. A!"

The tension of their situation began to tell as she fought back a small giggle.

"Stop laughing, it is not funny! I am a doctor, Jadzia. A doctor who has peoples' lives in his **HANDS** that depend on him to save them. My hands are one of my greatest tools!"

" I am sorry, Julian,you are right." She said penitently.

She slowly clambered onto his back, wincing sympathetically as Julian hissed as a knee dug into his back.

She sat up slowly,

"I need light,"

"Well, it would have been nice if you had decided that **before** we got started." He stated though gritted teeth.

He ever so delicately reached down and fumbled with the device trying to access it without dislodging Jadzia.

"Any chance you could hurry?"

"Of course there is, if you don't mind me dropping you. This is not nearly as easy as it may seem to you up there."

"Easy!" Jadzia gave an un-lady like snort.

Then there was a soft whirring as the tricorder muted light shed a dim illumination.

"There, how is that?"

"Better thank you… Let me see here, first I need to reach there… now… OK, Julian, I am about to power it on to regain attitude control. "

There was a beeping and a satisfying whirr as the panel above them glowed, then, very slowly, the shuttle rotated causing Bashir to lose his footing and stagger, dropping Jadzia onto a seat, which was now in its rightful place.

"Hey!"

Julian's face broke into a grin as he surveyed the shuttle; he walked towards the pilot seat, extending a hand to Jadzia who was rising from the seat where she had landed.

Then with a slight popping sound the panel went dark again.

"No!" Julian smacked the back of his seat with his palm.

"Did you get a chance to send out a distress call?"

Before she could reply there were slight rustling noises, then another pop. Just as he was opening his mouth to ask what was going on, Jadzia activated an emergency light. The shuttle was bathed in bright light one more, seeming to do battle with the darkness outside.

"Ah, that's better!"

He sat in the seat and turned towards his companion.

His brow wrinkled,

"Did you happen to see a ship after we collided?"

She looked up, startled.

"No, why?"

"Because, I could have sworn I saw one right before impact."

Jadzia's brow furrowed in concern.

"Are you sure it was not a result of you hitting your head?"

"Yes, very."

He looked at her, affronted at the question.

She opened her mouth to say more but suddenly a transporter beam shimmered into the shuttle, giving them only enough time to exchange startled looks before they de-materialized.


	2. Chapter 2

Jadzia opened her eyes. She saw dusty feet all around her, suddenly remembering her abduction she sat up quickly and looked around her. She was surrounded with females of every species; some were foreign to her, a thing that did not often happen to Dax after so many lives.

They were all tired and worn looking; from the thinning hair and various degrees of emaciation, she could see that they were malnourished. Some were positively skeletal, their clothes hanging from them in rags. The stink of starvation was palpable in the dusty air.

None seemed interested in her, avoiding eye contact when she looked at them. Very few children were to be seen, and they too were underweight. It was hot, the kind of suffocating heat that shimmered and distorted far away objects, making them seem as if they were being viewed through a silk curtain. Two twin suns blazed in the orange sky.

She scrambled to her feet and brushed her hair out of her face, weaving unsteadily for a moment, the transporter had thrown off her equilibrium, and then she started to make a slow circuit around the fence that hemmed her in. It was a sizable enclosure, but not large enough to hold all the prisoners. It was a simple metal fence, but there was a tell tale humming, a prickling of her skin when she got close. It was charged with a very high current. Crude but effective.

But why was she here? Where was Julian? Were these the only people here? She scanned the area; there were no men in sight. She took a steadying breath.

One of her questions was answered as a shrill whistle sounded and large wooden gates creaked open and a larger group of women flooded in looking, if possible, dirtier and more ragged than the group she was with. The eddy of flesh caused her to be pressed towards the fence, fearing being crushed into the security field she began to fight using her elbows and feet to clear a space. With one particularly vicious thrust she freed herself and tried to find a safer place where she was in less danger of being crushed. This turned out to be next to a group of gaunt Klingons. They were more than gaunt she saw, observing closer, they were emaciated, their heads seeming to be too large for the neck to support, their eyes dead. They eyed her with a dull sullenness that was more chilling to the Trill than the fact she was imprisoned in a holding pen. What could have happened that had reduced them to such despair? How long they must have been held to reduce them to this condition she did not want to speculate.

A cold knot of fear twined its way into her stomach.

The suns began to set with no provisions being offered. While the lessening of the heat was a relief Jadzia was still very aware of her thirst. She toured the confines; it was a crude corral, made of scraps of metal. As darkness fell Jadzia could see the inmates lying down in random places, there were no bed materials, the women just lay where they wished. Her legs weary with wandering around she sat down and clutched her knees to herself.

"Move!" She looked up startled to see who had barked the order; it was the tallest in the group of Klingons.

"I don't think so," she replied looking them up and down.

"Well, isn't this a brave one!" The tallest turned towards her companions, they laughed unpleasantly.

"We shall see how long she lasts, this mannerless female! I say less than two weeks."

There was another burst of laughter as they grouped tighter around her. One of them prodded her with her shoeless foot.

"Did you not hear us? Are you deaf? We said move, we require your spot."

"Did you not hear _me_?" Jadzia responded roundly.

"I said no, go find someone else to bully."

She looked up at them squarely, unafraid.

There was no attention given to this exchange by any other of the inmates, conflicts happened all the time. The lucky ones died.

Suddenly she was jerked to her feet by a Klingon. Without hesitation Jadzia threw the assailant off of her and on her back and bent over the prostrate form. It was absurdly easy, there was almost no weight to the woman she threw, and she had used every ounce of strength she was accustomed to using in the holosuit programs. There was an enraged growl from the rest of the gang surged towards them.

"I said find somewhere else to sit you, spawn of a toothless targ!" Jadzia cursed them in flawless Klingonese, her epithets calling in question their descent and the honor of their houses.

The group of hostile women hesitated in the advance, astonished at being accosting in their native language. They looked at each other, and then the leader held up her hand.

"You speak our language well. How did this come about?"

Jadzia took a step back, releasing her attacker.

"I have spent time in company with Klingons in the past."

They looked at her with grudging respect. Clearly her outburst had impressed them,

"Come, sit with us."

Jadzia sat down, avoiding openly staring at the hollow cheeks iof the faces, at the glaringly protruding forehead ridges.

"Where are we?'

"We do not know."

"Who are our captors, why are we here?"

"We know little, we were on a ship traveling to Tirell when suddenly we hit an asteroid, our ship was crippled, and we lost power in all systems except life support. We drifted for two days before we were transported off of our ship and arrived here."

"We clear land of stones and trees and quarry stones. If you do not work, you are beaten. The Breen are in charge of this camp, though we do not think they are native to this land. The Breen are notorious for being for hire. They are cowards with no honor."

Jadzia looked up, "That is much the same tale as happened to us. I was traveling with a companion, where is he? Why are there no men here?"

"We do not know, we never have seen males of any species, other than the Breen, though we do not have any way of knowing their sex."

"What happens now?"

"Nothing for a while, it is the rest period. Rest, conserve your strength as much as you can, you will need it. When the sun begins to rise we will be chosen to go to fields or quarry, we have no way to be sure but it seems as if it is eighteen of your standard Earth hours we are laboring. If we are not singled out for punishment we will receive rations, meager ones. "

"What happens if you don't go out to work?"

"You are not fed. Then you are beaten" Was the simple reply.

Despite the blazing heat of earlier,a chill began to creep over Jadzia, she squinted up at the almost black sky; this planet was only heated when facing the suns. She realized she could expect the temperature to drop further as the night went on, this was confirmed as she saw the prisoners scooping up the loose sand and pouring it over themselves, having a primitive blanket to shield them from the imminent cold. Her companions had already started digging themselves in. Jadzia quickly followed suit, and none too soon, the temperature had dropped to the point it was hard to feel her fingers.

By the time she had finished covering herself with sand the Klingon women beside her were deeply sleep, their snores giving testament to their fatigue.

But for Jadzia sleep did not come the first night, it was spent squinting at the stars attempting to divine a pattern in them, some familiar constellation to act as a compass to guide her home. There was none.

The cold began to permeate the sand, causing her to shake and shiver in her hole in the ground. The uncertainty was maddening, the not knowing where she was, why she was here, where her companion was, why they had been separated. Her mind was racing, she began to feel slightly nauseous from thirst she became aware of a sticky sensation in her mouth, it was most uncomfortable, she wished day would come, it almost seemed as if the situation would be easier to bear if there was light, some other sound than the faint humming of the fence and the soft cries of prisoners whimpering in their sleep.

She was not used to feeling uncertain. That was the very opposite of who she, Jadzia, was. She was confident, that was her trademark, her birthright after so many lives lived. She had very rarely been in a situation she did not know how to handle since being joined. But none of her previous hosts had any experience with being captured and held on an unknown planet. The night stretched out almost unendurably. Then, almost imperceptibly a faint ribbon of light glimmered on the horizon.

A loud siren sounded shill and demanding in the pre-light and the lumps beneath the sand began to move, coming to the surface and shedding sand as the stepped towards the gate in a ragged, uneven line. A hand grasped her arm.

"Stay with us."

It was the Klingon woman from the night before, she opened her mouth to express thanks but a repressive look caused the words to die on her lips.

There were approaching figures - Breen.

They swung open the gate and slowly the prisoners shuffled forward where a Breen flicked his gloved hand left or right causing two groups to form, Jadzia hesitated, uncertain, but the masses behind her pushed her forward, then she was pushed, stumbling and staggering to the group on the right . Most of the group of Klingon's joined as well. She fervently hoped that water would be offered soon, but the sorting still continued. A Vulcan woman joined their group; she gazed at Jadzia impassively, and then seemed to loose interest. Almost unbelievably quickly the heat began to blaze down causing Jadzia's skin to tingle unpleasantly. Then a shout rang out over the group and they began to shuffle forward, it was an uncomfortable trek, it must have been almost a kilometer when they came upon a deep pit in the ground, everything surrounding them was coated with a powdery white dust, this must be the quarry.

A rag-tag line formed and she could see equipment being passed out to the women in front of her.

When her turn came she was given a shovel and directed towards a tunnel on the right side.

To her relief the Klingon leader followed her. The tunnel was dimly lit, most of the torches had burned out, and this caused a moment of concern as she considered the possibility of carbon monoxide.

She kept walking until the tunnel began to lower causing her to stoop to continue.

Then abruptly, the passage ended.

"Now we dig." It seemed as if the Klingon had decided to take Jadzia under her wing.

"Where?"

She was given an impatient look, it was clear the woman regarded her as slow. She motioned to the end of the tunnel and began wielding her pick, burying it deep in the soft chalky rock.

Jadzia followed her example and was surprised at how easily her tool slid into the rock, but it proved to be almost impossible to pull out. Several times Jadzia tried to ask questions of her companion but she was resolutely ignored. Soon it became apparent why, there was a groan behind her, she turned to see a Bajoran woman sliding down the wall of the tunnel overcome by exhaustion and malnutrition, Jadzia took a step to assist her despite the Klingons hissed warning, she bent over her, but a sudden searing pain across her back caused her to arch and yelp. A suited figure struck her again and struck her once more, she staggered back and was met by the Klingon shoving the tool back in her hands and and pushing her forcibly to the spot where she had been digging previously. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the fallen woman being dragged away, her head lolling to the side.

After this she stayed in her place and did not look at any disturbances. There was one five minute break when they were allowed to go relieve themselves. There was no food or water offered. She began to feel light headed from thirst.

After a day that seemed to stretch into infinity a shrill whistle sounded, wearily the Klingon stood up and started out the way she came. Jadzia followed.

They surrendered the mining instruments as they exited the mine. Jadzia followed the line that seemed to be shuffling with slightly more animation now. Then she saw it, it was a small station distributing food and water. But as she approached she saw a sight that as thirsty and hungry as she was, almost caused her to step out of the line.

It was the Bajoran woman, she had evidently been left out in the brutal heat for hours, her face was pinched, her face scarlet, cracked and oozing, eyes wide and staring. Jadzia could only hope the poor woman was dead, but when she was close enough to step over the body, it blinked. She stopped in her tracks, her mind refusing to grasp what she was seeing, not wanting to believe it. Then she received a push from behind, she narrowly missed stepping on the women. Then it was her turn in line, she was given a piece of hard bread-like materiel and a cup containing less than eight ounces of water, she gazed at it for a moment in dismay, she knew his would not be able to sustain Trill life for long. But she still turned and made a half step towards the fallen woman, only to be pulled along in the iron grasp of her mentor. A Breen caught the slight step out of line and used the butt end of his weapon to club her on the side of her head. Jadzia stumbled back in the line dazed and disorientated. The woman gestured that she drink. Most of her water had spilled. The water and bread tasted metallic.

All too soon it was gone and she was trudging in a line back to the holding pen. As tired as she was she could only guess how much worse it had been to be out in the heat all day laboring to clear fields. She felt a rush of gratitude to the Klingon women who had obviously taken pains to make sure she was working in the tunnels.

Once in the enclosure she sought out the women again.

This time she did not have to initiate conversation.

"You will be drug to the surface and left to die an excruciating death from exposure if you keep acting weak and faltering.

Helping others may be a _Federation _trait, but here, it will get you killed."

Jadzia did not respond for a second, unbidden the face of the dying Bajoran woman rose before her, her throat spasmed briefly, she felt nauseous.

"Why do they use manual labor? Surely machines would be more efficient at clearing than workers are."

She changed the subject, pushing aside the guilt that was twining up around her like diseased ivy.

The smallest Klingon grunted,

"It is the dust from the rock; it finds its way into the machines and ruins them."

"Have you ever tried to escape?"

They exchanged guarded looks.

"Once, but after two days of being left out in the desert alone as an example I decided to try and find another way to escape, besides, I did not want to leave here knowing our captors were alive."

Jadzia nodded.

"You need to stop these foolish questions, dig your shelter while there is light and warmth in the sand. Tomorrow you will be in the fields; you will need to conserve all of your strength for that. "

There was no denying the exhaustion that clouded her head and caused her thinking to slow, it felt oppressive, as if there was an entity that was somehow stealing a part of her. Her lash marks smarted and pulled with every movement causing her to wince as she dug.

This night she fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes and dreamed of soft brown eyes and a boyish smile.

The following day was a nightmare; the welts on her back were gritty with the sand that had worked its way in during the night, she was beaten for stumbling, for not pulling a stump quickly enough, for being too slow to get to her feet after the rest period was over.

The suns blazed down, she lost track over how many women collapsed and were drug away that day. One was a Klingon. Her hands became raw but she was afraid to stop to tear strips from her sleeves to protect them. Heat rose up like a living thing to assault those on the surface. Jadzia longed for the relative comfort of the mines.

By the end of the day her back was a mass of criss crossed wounds, her uniform was shredded. To add insult to injury she was singled out of the ration line by an armed guard. It seemed that she was still to be punished by being denied sustenance.

Her tongue was thick from dehydration, her hands began to shake. A raging need constantly gnawed at her, tinting every thought. She stumbled to her accustomed spot, too tired to dig a hole, fearing infection of the wounds. She wished for the reassuring whirr of a tricorder and a calm confident doctor to tell her she was going to be fine.

The Klingon group approached, they were one short. They did not speak, though softly, late in the numbingly cold night she heard them chanting the Death Chant.

On this night she thought of her companion, of rescue parties and replicators, anything to keep her mind off the pain and thirst. This brought her back to the question of where Julian was, of what happened to him, though she was sure judging by how the females were treated he was faring even worse.

Her eye became oddly moist considering how she craved moisture, and then she realized the stinging in her eyes produced no tears.

She sternly ordered the weakness away; she knew it was imperative that she conserve fluids. Then exhaustion claimed her and she fell asleep, but woke later, shivering in the cold, too stiff to dig, too cold to sleep. Tonight she was learning an important lesson, no matter how badly she felt, she must always prepare shelter before the night. She found herself fantasizing about the sound of rain on Trill, how it had surrounded her with a blanket of sound as it beat on the roof. With that thought on her mind she slept.

Soon the days blurred into each other, the planet kept turning, scorching days, freezing night, her defenses began to wear down, and she did not ever think she would see her home again. Beatings were a daily occurrence. She began to suffer from joint pain and then stomach and back pain. Tomorrow was always too distant for her to contemplate now; her thoughts were centered on surviving the present moment she endured. She frequently became disoriented and confused; she did not remember when her mentor disappeared or what happened to her. Then there was only one of the group left. She began to cease being preoccupied where Julian was, where the rescue party was, how long she had been there, her life was a struggle to survive the suns. Her skin cracked and oozed, walking became almost impossible because of her growing weakness, but at least the thirst was gone. She knew that her symbiont was dying. As an aquatic creature Dax was more vulnerable to dehydration than a humanoid. Most of her fluids were absorbed by the symbiont, but Jadzia knew it would never be enough.

The days she was lucky she was assigned to the tunnels and had some respite from the heat. It never rained on this planet.


	3. Chapter 3

After a few minutes of deep breathing to compose himself, Julian rolled over and opened his eyes.

He was on a simple mat of some kind, and judging from the smell of disinfectant and bustling workers, in a medical facility of some sort.

His brow furrowed, he last remembered being on the runabout with Dax, stranded.

'_Dax!'_ He sat up abruptly, looking around for her.

He was in a curtained cubical, the air permeated with disinfectant, outside was pandemonium, people were being pushed around on gurneys, frantic groups around beds, orders being shouted… this was very much a hospital, or at the very least a triage center.

Instinctively his training kicked in and he staggered to his feet and toward the bed closest to him, it held a old man, pulling out his tricorder he scanned him, Broken leg that had been set, although very crudely. He seemed to be under the influence of a numbing narcotic, he was asleep.

Flipping the tricorder closed he began to infiltrate the crowd calling for Jadzia as he scanned faces, but his voice was lost in the shouts and cries that surrounded him. At one point he was pulled out of his search with a brusque command to hold down a patient while his shoulder was being relocated. He did so, and then tried to get answers from the physician as to where he was and what happened, where was his companion?

He was brushed off and told to sit quietly till a Registar came to log him in, they would have any information on his companion, then the unhelpful physician hurried off toward the sound of screams as another writhing patent was brought in.

Julian slowly backed away towards a wall, observing what was around him. Most of the patients were workers, brawny, heavily muscled and in torn and sweaty clothes, if he had to guess he would have said they were miners or builders of some kind. There was a diverse group of species represented here, though most seemed humanoid. They were all male to the best of his knowledge, all except a few of the medical staff. This seemed to give credence to the work site accident theory he had.

After waiting for about five minutes while another crisis was attended to he got up again and began to mingle with the crowd searching for the blue eyes and spotted skin of Jadzia. Fighting panic he began to walk faster with an ever increasing sense of urgency. He accosted a worker passing, attempting to catch his sleeve and get answers but it was if he was not even there.

Again his search was halted, he was walking by and heard a man pleading for help, always the healer he turned towards the man, seeing that his make shift tourniquet had loosened, in a instant Julian was beside him reassuring him as he tightened down the trips of material. He frowned as he realized he needed to stay by the man's side to ensure it did not slip again, Julian had never encountered this particular species, but in a human a nearly severed limb was deadly if not tended to.

"What happened?" Julian's voice was low, comforting as he sought answers from the man.

"Brace gave way" the man gritted out "took the whole west wall down, no time to evacuate."

"Ah," said Julian trying to look less confused than he was.

"Were there many injured?"

The man moaned and looked at him in a strained way.

"Not sure."

This man needed some anesthetic; Julian searched the crowd for the lavender color that seemed to indicate nurses.

"We will find someone who can get this fixed up for you soon; you will feel better very soon."

As soon as he spotted a nurse he reached out and put a hand on a passing nurse.

"Excuse me, this man needs immediate attention, he has critical blood loss and is in pain." His voice was clipped and athouritive.

"Yes Doctor, right away." She stated then her eyes widened as she took in his Federation uniform.

"You are not a doctor here," she stated with suspicion.

"Yes I am," he snapped, "I was transported here along with my companion, I am a doctor with the Federation. And no, I do not belong here, as soon as this man gets attention I demand on seeing someone in charge. I was brought here against my will. Kidnapping is a serious offence."

With a last appraising glance, she nodded and turned on her heel, Julian hoped it was to bring help; it was torture to be next to a patient in such pain and not be able to do anything but hold his hand. He began to ask questions trying to keep the man alert.

"Can you tell me where we are?"

"Asteroid 734, work site 4."

"Were you born here?"

"No," the man's breathing became labored as he fought the pain.

"I was born on Tellgur , came here to work on the construction, pays better than on my planet, though it is hotter than Vulcan here."

" I see."

The man begin to slip out of consciousness just as the nurse brought a doctor who administered the pain killer then began to fill out forms, actual paper forms which seemed necessary to getting the man into a surgical bay.

"This man does not have the time to wait. He needs to get help now."

"I can see that, but we don't have any available medical bays. He will have to wait till we have an opening." He looked at Julian not unsympathetically.

"You said you were a doctor?"

"Yes." Julian said, still holding the hand of the now unconscious man.

"My companion and I were abducted off our shuttle, I was brought here."

A slight frown appeared on the forehead of the doctor, this was not wholly unexpected then, he had known of things like this happening before, though it was plain he did not approve.

"I see." He studied Julian closer.

"You said you were a Federation doctor?"

"Yes, yes I am." He put a slight emphasis on the last word not appreciating the use of his occupation in the past tense.

"Well, at the moment you could be a great help, we have had a bit of an emergency situation here as you can see. You will find that our medicine is not as advanced as the Federation, but we still do what we can. We can get this sorted out after we have tended to all the patents. What do you say?"

"Of course I will be happy to help any way I can, but I am very concerned about my companion, a woman, could you help me find her?"

"I will do whatever I can to help, though more than likely she is here somewhere in the confusion. Will you help?"

"Of course, where would you like me to go?" Julian relented.

"Follow me."

* * *

The following hours were a haze of him fixing injured and broken patents with only the most basic of supplies. It was laughable that he had once considered DS9 as "Real frontier medicine." **This** was frontier medicine. Treating broken bones with minimal sedation, no bone regeneration, no epoxy casts, only wooden or metal splints. No tissue regenerators, just trying to clean a wound and sew the flaps of skin to cover if needed, and hope with desperation that it did not become infected. During the time he was working various nurses and staff presented him with females who were unidentified, every time he shook his head his heart sank a little deeper. After five hours they insisted he take a break, but he waved off the offer of food and set off to search for Jadzia. He managed to work his way around the building, it was a domed building, most of the sides were glass and he could see similar buildings all around though in varying sizes. If he hazarded a guess he would have guess the smaller ones were dwellings. There were two suns causing the shadows to duplicate and wavier in a disconcerting way.

He was filling with anger as he traversed the building a second time, this time trying the door. It refused to open to him, he ran his finger along the side of the door, feeling the unmistakable tingle of a force field, frowning he probed his fingers in a small crack, there was a electric shock and with a curse he pulled his hand back, not a force field then, those did not shock, But who would seal the doors to a hospital?

The hospital took on a much grimmer aspect as he viewed it through the perspective of a prisoner. Pursing his lips he made his way back to the ward where he had been working previously.

They were preparing to go back to go back to work, they motioned him to join them, but he shook his head and refused, leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed. All the critical patents had been tended to, Julian was officially on strike.

This earned him some curious glances but no one approached him about his refusal to join in. So he was left in the situation of standing immobile as the facility bustled around him. His unnatural inactivity was almost as stressful as not knowing what had happened to Jadzia.

Then, being witness to a nurse unskillfully trying to maneuver a elbow into place and hearing the gasps of pain from the patent Julian could take no more, abandoning his former policy of inaction he quickly stepped up to the bedside and curtly motioned for the woman to move aside, she did with no hesitation having seen his competent work earlier in the day. When that patent had been tended to he moved on to others, realizing his inability to stand by and let others suffer when he was able to help.

He kept busy well into the night, and then it was over, there were no more to help. Everyone looked at a loss for a minute, and then started trickling away.

Sensing a presence Julian turned and saw the doctor who had recruited him standing closely beside him, too close, he took a step back to regain some personal space but the doctor took another step closing the gap.

"Did you find her?" His question was abrupt.

"I sent any I thought matched her description."

"No, she was not among the women I saw, I thank you for your consideration."

He raised his chin. "So now are you going to tell me where the hell I am and why I was abducted here?"

The doctor looked up at him; Julian had a good four inches on him.

His eyes were weary Julian noted, focusing past the yellow irises.

"You had better follow me." Was the reply.

He was directed to a small room, little more than a closet that a room, though it had a desk and two chairs. He sat in the one closest to him realizing how weary he was, his hand throbbed painfully from where Jadzia had crushed it with her boot.

"So, where am I, why were my friend and I abducted from our shuttle?"

The doctor leaned back.

"Friend, I will answer as I can. First, my name is Joissa. It always helps to know names, does it not?"

"Bashir, Doctor Julian Bashir, United Federation of Planets."

"Well, Julian, my guess is that you must have strayed too close to our planet and a medical drone identified you as injured and transported you here. Your companion is probably at an orbital station working with authorities to find you."

"We are on asteroid 347, we, my species that is, the Crina, are colonizing this with the help of the Breen."

"But how is it possible that a species with not even a dermal regenerator can have the advanced technology to have medical drones capable of transport?"

Something was just not fitting together to Julian. Something sinister that he could not identify.

"Ah", Joissa said," that would because of the Breen, they share their technology with us, but of course the advancements go to industrial and engineering first. I expect we will see more advanced tools here soon."

Though he spoke cheerfully enough his face was clouded. It seemed he was not happy with the priorities of the colony.

"So all I have to do is contact the authorities and I will be put into contact with my friend?"

"Well," there was a noticeable hesitation. "It is not quite that simple, I am afraid that getting messages to the orbital stations takes time, as much as a week at times, transmission time here is very slow, well, at least to you it would be slow I am sure.

Julian leaned forward and pinched his forehead.

"When is the soonest we can send a message?"

"That would be tomorrow, as soon as the communicator office opens."

"We can get you in first thing, I have some rest time available and I can take it to show you around.'

"Thank you." Then another question occurred to him.

"Why was the door locked, I tried it and it would not budge?"

Joissa looked surprised.  
"Why that is the first time I have heard of it, it must have been a malfunction."

"Come with me, it has been a long day, let me show you your appreciation by sharing my dinner with you."

As they left the hospital Julian noticed that the door slid open easily, he dismissed the incident as a coincidence, a fluke of new and therefore unstable technology.

He was led to a smaller bio dome, he had been correct then, these were dwellings.

Dinner was an uneventful, dull affair, it seemed to be a paste of roots, not particularly palatable but he managed to politely finish his serving though he refused seconds.

Then he was handed a blanket and motioned to the couch in the living room, he hesitated, he would have preferred to have his own room in a rental building, but it seemed churlish to bring it up to his host after he had so graciously offered his hospitality.

But after a moment he gave his polite smile and thanked him.

The couch was firmer than he would like, but he was very tired.

He woke before his host and took the time to step outside and inspect his surroundings, the sky was orange.

He was able to see his first Breen, it may have been his imagination, but it seemed that they were almost as interested in him as he was in them.

But where as his interest was from curiosity, there's seemed to stem from a more sinister perspective judging from the shifting of weapons to the ready pose.

The message was clear. No matter how hospitable Jossia was, he, Bashir, was under surveillance, if not downright imprisonment.


End file.
